


you've got to be kidding me

by pagesofwrittenwings



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Changing POV, I Don't Even Know, alya is smart, future identity reveal, i know nothing of photoshop, like seriously, literally the day afterwards, marinette yells at alya, no beta we die like men, reporter alya cesaire, super simplified photoshop, supportive and protective parents, takes place directly after nightengale, was going to be a crack fic and turned into this, what happened
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 09:44:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17702003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pagesofwrittenwings/pseuds/pagesofwrittenwings
Summary: After staying up all night working on a LadyBlog post and talking about it, Alya decides to give an old theory another chance. Halfway through Marinette helps her out. What happens afterwards shocks her and her friends.Or: what I think Alya should have done after the music video in Frightengale since literally everyone was wearing the LB/CN masks and I'm fairly sure she does have a basic understanding of PhotoshopI'm not salty





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi~~
> 
> So this is my first ML fic and like it says in the tags, this was supposed to be a crack fic of Alya, being super tired from a late night of investigating and/or homework, sending Marinette a pic of her wearing the LB mask from the music video with Alya drawing the LB suit on her like she did with Adrien being like "lol what if you were LB" with Mari trying to argue it. With Alya then realizing. And this is where we are now lol
> 
> For those who have read my stuff before, I will update my Just A Kid fic soon. No real reason as for why I haven't updated, other than that I got into ML and also it is somehow February. I'm hoping by this weekend or the next to have it up.
> 
> well, that's enough of my rambling. Hope you enjoy!

Slumped in her computer chair, Alya wondered how this had become her life. Not only were there actual superheroes running around Paris dressed as a ladybug and a cat in leather fighting villains made by their supervillain, but she had just been part of a music video based off of those superheroes. Which had been almost cancelled due to Chloé Bourgeois throwing a goddamn temper tantrum at not being with her ‘Adri-kins’ causing Frightengale, forcing everyone to be stuck rhyming or frozen. She shuddered, remembering how it felt to be stuck in her place, unable to help her friends. It seemed to take forever until Ladybug’s healing power flowed over her and everyone else in the vicinity. And as excited as she was to be allowed to participate in the video, there was a part of her that was bummed that she had missed the akuma fight. 

At least Alya was, until she found out that since she ran the blog about LadyBug and Chat Noir _(because of course she did)_ she had been given some of the raw footage and pictures of the shoot to post on her blog to help raise some hype about the video. Talk about a scoop! Alya thanked the producer and Clara probably a million times while clutching the CD and waved goodbye to their friends, who all were sporting half-amused smiles. Though Marinette had nowhere to talk with how she got during one of her sketching crazes.

She had rushed home, barely sparing a second to say hello to her parents before racing to her room and typing up a storm. She could’ve sworn it was only a little bit past midnight or one am when she submitted her post, but now her alarm was going off which meant it was in fact seven am and she had about an hour to become conscious and ready for school.

And eat breakfast. 

And get her two homework assignments done.

And then make the walk to school after dropping her younger sisters off while dealing with her older sister growling at anyone coming close to her in fear of an akuma. 

…….

“Hey Maman! I’m calling in a mental health day!!”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hours later she stumbled from her room, hair everywhere and eyes squinted since she didn’t feel like putting her glasses on. The strong scent of caffeine led her to the kitchen, the bright red clashing with the sunlight streaming out of the windows causing her to cover her eyes until they adjusted. Once she was no longer at risk of getting a headache from the light, she turned until she saw where her maman was rushing around the kitchen, pots and pans and ingredients covering every inch of the counter. Marlena looked up enough to see her almost blind daughter and took enough time to hand her a mug decorated with fox tails and gently pushed her into the living room. Sitting down on the couch next to her father, the young reporter gave a nod of thanks in lieu of interrupting her work, knowing that she as writing up a new menu for the restaurant. Looking to the side Alya saw that Otis was writing up a new report about his beloved panther.

Father and daughter enjoyed their beverages in quiet, the only disruption being the _clacking_ of the keyboard in her father’s lap and the slight vibration of a certain blog’s notifications coming from the blog owner’s robe pocket. Every now and then her maman would come out of the kitchen with new samples for them to try.

“Popular post?” Otis questioned, hitting the save button before closing his laptop. “Sorry, I haven’t been able to read it yet, needed to get this report done for work.”

“It’s alright Papa. And yes,” she responded, sipping the last of her coffee before setting the mug down on the table, “It’s about that music video contest yesterday. I haven’t checked yet but I’m sure the theorists are already arguing about if LadyBug or Chat Noir were actually there or not.”

“But wouldn’t people have noticed them standing around in their costumes, what with that Agreste kid and his partner dressed up?”

“What?” Akya asked.

“Wasn’t that the whole point you and your friends went? To go audition to be the LadyBug in the video?” Her father explained, the tone of his voice similar to how he spoke to Elle and Ella. _‘We need to be better about getting her to go to bed’_ he thought.

Alya blinked at her father for a minute, her exhausted brain not wanting to comprehend what he said. Said father stared at her, concern forcing his thick eyebrows together. But finally the cogs clicked together and she told him of the whole akuma fight from the day before, and how it changed the whole story of the video. She might have even bragged about how her girl was given the narration part for the intro. Sue her, she was proud.

“Ahh. What do you think?” Otis asked, sharing a knowing glance with his wife as she entered the room with another plate.

“Well...I’m not sure to be honest. On one hand, if my theory is right then at least LadyBug is a girl my age and possibly Chat Noir as well.” She ignored her parents shock. Clearly they had forgotten about that. “I mean, I was excited to go to the contest just to be with my friends, and I’m just a regular teen. What do I have to worry about? School, homework, friends, dating, hell even my blog.” She answered, wincing at the disapproved _ahem_ from her mother. “Sorry maman, But seriously! That’s it! Can you imagine adding on being a superhero, on top of it, along with having to keep it a secret? If it had been me I would’ve JUMPED at the chance to just kick back and have some fun. Or even just swing by and see how many people actually showed up for auditions.”

Marlena nodded, “We all need to feel validated. How it must feel to be those two, or even their parents?” She wondered.

“Exactly. On the other hand from what I’ve seen from their interactions, Chat Noir would be the one jumping to be apart of it. But LadyBug would be more concerned with making sure that the two of them are prepared for when an akuma arises. Besides, I would like to think that at least _somebody_ would’ve noticed the two of them, due to the amount of people there are at every fight and the pictures that get posted afterwards. Especially once people started wearing the masks...” She theorized, and a second later a lightbulb went off in her head. If either of the heroes had been there, and they were one of the lucky few to have been given masks...Which had mostly been her classmates now that she thought about it…. One of which might be LB…

“No!”

Alya and Otis both jumped at the loud outburst that came from the chef. Who had her arms on her hips in the classic mom-is-not-having-it pose.

“I know that look Alya Césaire, and if you think you are going back to you room to work on your next theory you have another thing coming. Not only did you not eat dinner last night or take a shower, you haven’t had anything except bites of appetizers and coffee. And do I even want to know how behind you are in your schoolwork? Didn’t think so. I want your butt in that bathroom and then back in the kitchen to eat, followed by your homework. Then we’ll talk about your new theory.”

“But Mam-” Alya tried to argue but stopped with her mom’s sharp look.

“Shower. Food. Homework. Now.”

“You might want to do what she says my dear,” Otis advised. “You know she’ll get her way.”

“Yes Papa..” Alya conceded. She got up from the couch and went to her room briefly ( _‘Just getting my clothes and bag Maman!’_ ) and made her way to the bathroom. But even with her Maman’s warning her brain was still running wild with her new theory. Enough so that she barely heard her father getting his own scolding as she started the water.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hours later she was freed from her exile. The only true highlight had been when Nino had stopped by after school to both give her the work from that day and to check up on her. God he was such a sweet boy. She really needed to find a way to thank Marinette for dragging her along to the zoo that day. Alya made a mental note of it as she entered her room. And not a moment too soon, because just as her bedroom door closed Elle and Ella crashed through the front, both talking a mile a minute about what they did in class that day. Alya couldn’t help her sigh of relief and wondered how her parents could do it. Sure she loves her sisters more than anything, and Hawkmoth better be prepared for the punch coming towards him if she ever met him, but even she could only take so much. Especially when the two started up their old Sapotis routine again.

Shaking her head she placed her bookbag next to her bed and settled in her computer chair, feeling as her reporter side take over. Pulling up her files from both the contest yesterday and her standard pictures of the female superhero, she cracked her knuckles and got ready. Loading up Photoshop Alya couldn’t help but sparing a glance to the plushie that Marinette had made of LadyBug she had sitting next to her computer.

“Alright LB, time to see if my theory is correct.”

She pulled up as many clean shots she could from the fifty pictures she had of the different girls that had been there yesterday, both with full body and close up, before crossing out any that didn’t have black hair and blue eyes.. Then she took out any that were obviously over fifteen or sixteen at the most. Though she couldn’t help putting them in a seperate folder marked ‘possible age wrong’ in case her Textbook™ theory was incorrect. Even though she had agreed with Marinette at the time she didn’t truly believe that ‘catching up on fifty centuries’ idea her friend had created. Lastly she combed through the left over pictures to grab any of the remaining girls to see which ones already were wearing the mask, and separated them from the others.Thirty minutes after starting she went from fifty girls to about ten. She quickly jotted down their names on a piece of paper to make notes.

Thus began the hardest part. Carefully she put the masked girls in a list and pulled up the close up and full body shots of LadyBug and stared at each girl. Theresa from the other class was too tall, and Sammy was too short. Fatima loved attention more than anyone Alya knew and wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret if it meant showing someone up. Mariana was too dark-skinned (but her cosplay is arguably the best, even when compared to Chloé) but maybe Bridgette? Alya put an asterisk next to her name on the paper and continued on.

She hurried through the list, crossing out Olivia (just moved from America), Lacey (wears glasses [maybe contacts?]) but ended up giving her an asterisk, and Cecilia (hair too long). Camille was too rounded in the cheeks plus hadn’t she just gone on vacation to Hawaii a couple weeks ago? No way would she have been able to take care of Befana, or Gorizilla, or was it Gargantuan from that week? Even for her all of these akumas were getting a little much. Which that also crossed out Marinette for her. She loves her best friend to death but with how much that girl runs at the sight of danger there was no way the designer would be able to jump around Paris’ rooftops and attack akumas. Besides, she was wayyy too clumsy to be the graceful LadyBug.

All in all, she was left with two names out of fifty after about an hour and a half. Leaning back in her chair to get a bit of a rest and to check her phone. Alya figured she could take a quick ten minute break before starting up on the guys for Chat Noir. Seeing a text message from Marinette she quickly unlocked her phone to check.

 

 **Mari** : hey! Nino texted and said that ur ok. Remember to rest up more! Im sure Clara wouldve understood if u didnt have the post up right away!  
**Mari** : which btw was great! Every1 was talking about it today. Mme Bustier had to threaten to take away phones lol

 **Me** : lol thx girl! And yeah im ok, just tired after doing the post.  
**Me** : trust me my parents already gave me the riot act abt being up all night

 **Mari** : lol im sure. Did you get all of ur homework done yet? Physics is killing me T.T

 **Me** : aww poor Mari! Tho i dont know why youre reaching out to me  
**Me** : not when there is a certain model we both know who is GREAT at physics ;)

While she waited for the reply she answered a couple comments on the blog. She had just finished blocking a couple trolls ( _‘lmao lb sucks, fucking sjws taking over’_ ) when a video call request took over her screen. Grinning Alya immediately answered.

“Hey girl.”

“ALYA!” Came the other voice on the line.

“Yes?” The reporter couldn’t help but chuckle. Seriously her friends was too easy.

“You know that I can’t just _ask_ Adrien to help me with my homework!”

“Why not? Didn’t you two hang out for the whole day when his bodyguard got akumatized? Plus you two seemed pretty close yesterday.” Alya teased, almost feeling the blush that took over her friend’s face.

Marinette stared at her incredulously before falling over on her bed, her muffled groan sounding through her phone’s speaker, which only became louder when one of Adrien’s many pictures fell from her corkboard on top of her. Alya laughed again and enjoyed her friend’s ever present embarrassment over her crush for a little while longer before glancing at her computer screen.

“Hey, if you want a distraction from boring old homework, I could use your help with something.” She offered.

It took a couple minutes of promising her friends not to bring up her crush again but Marinette raised her head again and asked, “What do you need help with? Help watching your sisters agan?”

“No luckily, Nora is here tonight so I’m free from that. I might help with bathtime if anything. No I need help with my new LB theory. And before you start anything just listen.” Alya said, quickly explaining what she had just spent the last couple hours on.

“Alya…” Marinette sighed, taking on a resigned tone, “You know that there is a reason for why they haven’t shared their identities. Aren’t you the one who’s read all of those comic books?”

“I know girl but you know me! I just gotta know the answer to this mystery. Besides there is no way I’d post it on the LadyBlog. I know what it’s like when Hawkmoth goes after one of my friends, or one of my family members.” Alya could hear Marinette’s sharp take of breath when her voice wavered. “I wouldn’t wish that one anyone.”

“Oh Alya…”

“I’m just saying. I know that’s probably why they aren’t sharing who they are and I get it. But think about it. What if LB or Chat Noir are kids we know? Don’t you want to be able to help them out next time?”

“So you’ve heard the rumors too?”

Alya nodded. There had been some rumors flying around the school that a new rule was being brought up to the board soon. One that would require that, in case of the event of an akuma, all students would be required to have a buddy whenever they left the classroom. There had been a difference in opinions from what Alya had heard, with one side being in favor with the idea with having someone to talk with during the inevitable trap the akuma laid or with the argument that it was easier to fight off becoming one with someone there to help talk you down. But the other side argued for their sense of privacy and others needing some personal time throughout the day, along with some parents worrying that their child would miss out on class time having to wait in the bathroom or the nurse’s or principal’s office while their ‘buddy’ took care of their business. 

It was a slow going process as far as anyone knew, so much so even Chloé didn’t know which way the board was leaning. But with the amount of akumas popping up more and more, everyone had already accepted that it was going to happen.it was just a matter of when.

“Exactly. Once that rule comes, imagine how hard of a time they will have trying to sneak away to fight. If someone knew, they could either be their buddy or reach out to someone they trust. And besides, wouldn’t you want someone to just talk to? I’m sure that LB and Chat Noir are close, but if it were you wouldn’t you want someone on the outside to vent to?”

“I guess…”Marinette said, looking off to the side.

“Please Marinette? I promise that if you help me with this I’ll help you with Physics! A-and I’ll even model that new dress you were sketching the other day!” Alya begged.

There were a few moments of silence while the black haired girl thought it over, again looking off to the side. Glancing at the time Alya was surprised to see how late it was. Her friend was probably trying to see if her parents were going to call her down for dinner, which even Alya was starting to get concerned about. If need be she could stop her research, but she always preferred reaching a natural stopping point or else her brain would be running it over and over again, which left her not truly paying attention to her surroundings. Her family had learned not to serve her any pasta without verifying she hadn’t been working on a theory.

“Alright.”

“What?” Alya asked, having been taken out of her thoughts.

“Alright I’ll help you. But only for a little bit! I need to get my homework done and then work on some sketches.”

“Thank you so much girl!! I’ll totally make it up to you! I’m going to switch over to Skype if that’s cool.” Alya exclaimed, quickly doing so once she got her friend’s approval.

“Okay,” Marinette said a minute later, now sitting comfortably at her own computer desk, “So what exactly do you need my help with?”

“Well we’re actually near the end for LB. I’ve decided on two girls on who she could be, so now i just need to superimpose the images where they’re wearing the masks onto her body and see if it matches up at all. Then we’ll just have to go through my list for the guys and do the same thing for Chat Noir and hopefully we’ll have proof of their identities.” Alya explained while quickly setting up her screen so that Marinette could see her screen.

“O-oh..how will that work?” Marinette asked, her voice strangely going up. 

“Here it’ll be quicker to show you. I’ve already crossed you off the list since you’re super clumsy so I’ll just use you as the model picture. Sorry girl,” Alya said in response to Marinette's’ offended squak. _‘Seriously’_ she thought to herself, _‘she has to accept that she trips over anything and everything.’_

Quickly she pulled up Marinette’s picture again. She clicked through her pictures of LadyBug one more time just to make sure that she picked the best one, one where the superheroine was standing straight and tall without any shadows or images in the background and foreground to obscure anything for her experiment. She finally ended on one from an interview after Stormy Weather where someone had been able to get a picture of her after healing everything with Miraculous Ladybug.

“Alright, so now we just…”Alya said, blowing up LadyBug’s picture and cropping Marinette’s close up so that they matched without blurring, and began to drag Mari’s head on top.

“Wait Alya!!”

“What?!” Shocked by her friend’s outburst, Alya let go of the mouse.

Just as two images became one.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Oh really? So it’s overreacting to think that if Hawk Moth were to find out that you know who I am that he would stop at nothing to get that information from you? You yourself just said that you wouldn’t wish Hawk Moth going after their family on anyone. Can you honestly tell me that if it meant it couldn’t happen again, to your family or Nino, that you wouldn’t consider giving me up? Even for just a second?” 
> 
> Marinette reacts to what Alya found out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Sorry it's been a while, life got crazy, including me starting some training for hopefully a new job!
> 
> As for this chapter....yeah it didn't turn out at ALL like I thought it would. What was supposed to be a somewhat cracky chapter of Marinette joining Alya in her Photoshop adventures to uncovering who is Chat Noir (complete with Alya teasing Marinette about a certain blonde) changed into...well you'll see.
> 
> Honestly somehow my saltiness towards Alya in this season creeped into my muse, plus reading some IronDad Marvel fics combined with Not Steve Rogers Friendly. Also huge apologies if Marinette and Tikki seem OOC in this fic. For some reason I just couldn't get their voices in my head while writing.
> 
> Also, who else agrees that Oblivio and Silencer are (so far) the best episodes this season??
> 
> Well, that's enough rambling. Hope you enjoy!

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Alya-”

_“You’ve got to be kidding me!”_

“Listen, Alya-”

“You better be on the way to my house Marinette or so help me God.”

“Alya! It’s after ten pm an-”

“Well then, I guess you’ll just have to jump over some roofs. Since you know, _apparently_ you can do that!!”

Marinette winced at the pure anger and hurt in her best friend’s voice. A glance to the side of her laptop caused another wince at the look Tikki gave her. She could feel the same horror and fear that was on her kwami’s face rising inside of her, much worse than what she felt facing any akuma. This had become one of her worst fears since she had become Ladybug. There had been a couple of close calls, her parents opening up the door leading into her room just as her transformation died or having to transform in an alley where anyone could walk by, that had taken a couple of years off of her lifespan. Plus all of the lies that she had to keep track of and added on lies when she slipped up that weighed heavily on her at all times now seemed to double. All of that effort to keep her identity safe was now for nothing due to a damn computer program. How was she going to explain this to Chat Noir?

She felt her stomach drop. Oh God, _how was she going to explain this to Chat Noir._

“Marinette!!!”

Alya’s voice broke through her frantic thoughts. The ravenette returned her gaze to her fuming friend, but felt strangely hollow. Marinette knew that Alya was berating her with questions and demanding to know why she hadn’t told her _best friend_ that she was a hero and _don’t you trust me Mari?_ But everything seemed to be going in one ear and out the other, her brain centered on every instance where her partner had wanted the two to reveal themselves. Every instance where she had to remind him the importance of hiding it and now she had to find a way to tell him that she me-

“ _MARINETTE!_ Why aren’t you li-”

“Alya shut the hell up!!

The two girls sat in shocked silence. For Alya it was obvious she couldn’t believe that her quiet-mannered polite best friend had blown up like she had, and Marinette from the anger she felt coursing through her. She took a second to close her eyes and take a couple deep breaths to help calm down (she did _not_ need an akuma right now) before looking at the red head again.

“Alya,” she started, “have you taken a second to think about what you have done? Have you considered the consequences? No, no excuses I’m talking. How many times have I told you not to try and figure out Ladybug and Chat Noir’s identity? Did you _ever_ stop and think about why their idenitites were a secret? No, you didn’t. You were more concerned with being a damn reporter and uncovering the so-called ‘truth’. Well, let me tell you why.

“Before tonight, you had no idea who Ladybug and Chat Noir were. You didn’t know their families, their friends, where or if they go to school. The only hint you had was that textbook. That same book, might I add, you got because Ladybug was too busy _hanging from a helicopter to hold on to the damn thing!_ You didn’t even really know their ages! But now, because you just had to know, not only do you know that I’m Ladybug, but you have put your family in danger.”

“What do you mean my family? They don’t know that you're Ladybug. I think you’re overreacting a bit Marinette.” Alya rebutted.

“Oh really? So it’s overreacting to think that if Hawk Moth were to find out that you know who I am that he would stop at nothing to get that information from you? You yourself just said that you wouldn’t wish Hawk Moth going after their family on anyone. Can you honestly tell me that if it meant it couldn’t happen again, to your family or to Nino, that you wouldn’t consider giving me up? Even for just a second?” Marinette asked.

Alya balked at the accusation, and immediately went to defend herself. But her eyes seemed to catch on something to the side of her laptop. If Marinette remembered correctly from the times she was in the room, there was a picture of the reporter’s family from a vacation a couple years back. Or it was from her and Nino’s six month anniversary date, where the boy had gotten her an amazing camera that could take pictures of things from a long distance away with stunning clarity in an attempt to get her from running into every battle just for the sake of a blog post. Whichever picture it was, it was enough to make the other girl pause from responding, and that couple seconds of hesitation was enough of an answer.

“See?” Marinette said in a rejected tone, feeling a small lump begin to form in her throat. Lightly she felt Tikki pat her hand and she sent her kwami a sad smile.

“Mari...I…” Alya started, but couldn’t seem to find the words.

“Look, I need to go find Chat and talk with him about this. Me and him need to talk about how this will affect me being Ladybug and us going forward. I also need some time to think about you and me as friends. I still love you as a friend, but you’ve really hurt my trust.” Marinette could see Alya’s flinch but she just plowed on, “All I ask is that for now you stop with trying to figure out who Chat Noir is. I know that I can’t ask you to stop the Ladyblog and I never would. But, please, just stick with talking about akuma battles for now. I just...please, okay?”

Alya nodded with tears slowing streaming down her face. Marinette did a small nod herself, wondering if her friend was feeling the same walnut shaped lump in her throat as well. Not knowing what else to do she cut the call and shut her laptop down before crawling up to her bed. She prided herself a little bit for being able to wait until her face was in her pillows before bursting into tears.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An indeterminable amount of time later Marinette lifted her head from the bed. Shakily wiping away the leftover tears, she could barely drum up the irritation she typically felt at the stains on her pillows leftover from her eyeliner. Instead she looked over at the small kwami hovering next to her who was staring at her with wet eyes as well. 

“Oh Marinette..I’m so sorry.”

“Tikki, what am I going to do? How am I going to tell Chat?”

“I’m not sure.. But I do know that the only way is to be honest Marinette.” The kwami told her Chosen.

“But Tikki, I’m not prepared for this. I always hoped that whenever we found out about each other that it would be us making that choice, not because of someone else. And even then, it’s my fault! All of this could have been avoided if I hadn’t gone to the auditions!” Marinette slammed her head back onto her pillow, internally berating herself for her selfish choices.

“Marinette you can’t blame yourself!” Tikki scolded.

“Why not?” The ravenette countered back, shooting up from her pillow and glaring at her kwami, “How many times did I scold Chat for not taking our roles seriously enough? For making all of his puns and showing off? But the second there was the possibility of being Ladybug just to stop Chloé from being able to be Adrien’s partner, I jumped at the chance. And then with the new concept I still did it! If I hadn’t then Alya would not have gotten the base picture she needed! God I knew I shouldn’t have gone. How could I be so stupid!” She yelled.

“Marinette that is enough! I refuse to sit here and listen to you talk down about yourself. You went to those auditions to have fun with your friends and to destress after so many akuma battles. While yes, I did not like you dressing up as Ladybug for the video, even you have to admit that it was a lot of fun actually _doing_ the video with all of your friends. And how could you have known that Alya would think of using her computer to figure it out?” The kwami questioned, before sighing at the return of the tears on the girl’s face. “Listen Marinette, the best thing you can do right now is reach out to Chat Noir. I know this is going to be hard but the sooner you tell him the better.”

Marinette sighed, knowing that her kwami was right. That didn’t mean that this was going to be any easier. “Okay Tikki. You’re right.”

She took an extra second to wipe her face again, nodding in thanks to her little friend for handing her a napkin to blow her nose with, before standing up on her bed and yelling “Tikki, spots on!” And before the light from her transformation had faded all of the way Ladybug was swinging through Paris. Before long she had reached an apartment at the top of a building that had long been evacuated, but couldn’t be torn down to the historical importance.

Ladybug and Chat Noir had come across La Retraite Des Papillons early into their days of being superheroes. A beautiful thirty story building from the early 1800’s the original coloring had been light pinks and purples with greens sprinkled through from what they could tell. Revolutionary for its’ time , it had always been a retreat mostly geared towards women, with sprawling gardens, spas and tastefully placed butterfly decorations everywhere. It had slowly become more of a hole in the wall hotel after Paris began to expand, but didn’t really start to lose any guests until after Hawk Moth stated sending his evilized butterflies after anyone feeling a strong negative emotion. Surprisingly, even with the hotel offering a complimentary spa experience geared to alleviate anyone from their stress, not that many people felt comfortable staying at a hotel decorated with a supervillain's M.O to getting his victims. The doors had officially closed within months and anyone who knew of the building doubted they would reopen even after the battle was over. But there were still activists who fought for the hotel to stay up due to it being one of the few first places that actually treated women’s health complaints, instead of just saying they were hysterical and ignoring them.

Once Ladybug had landed in the apartment her and Chat had claimed as their own, she took out her yoyo and opened up the message app. Taking a deep breath, she quickly typed out a message asking her partner to meet her as soon as possible saying that there was something they needed to discuss. After hitting send, she sent out another one to let him know that it wasn’t anything that he had done since she knew of her partner’s severe anxiety and tendency to have a lot of self-deprecating thoughts. Once that task was completed, Ladybug went over to a cabinet in the bedroom and pulling out a thick quilt she had made last fall after realizing how badly the cold weather affected her. While it hadn’t truly stopped the hibernation she came very close to facing, it had helped keep some warmth when needed, and now the two superheroes almost always found themselves wrapped up in it after a long night of patrol or a particularly grueling akuma battle. Sitting down on an old mattress Chat Noir had found one day after exploring the hotel and giving it a _thorough_ cleaning, she wrapped herself up in the quilt and reached into her bag to pull out the small plushies she had made of her and her partner.

Setting them down, Ladybug had no choice but to settle in and wait for her partner to arrive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So....yeah...Marinette gets a little salty and then breaks down. Honestly this is the only true way I can see her reacting to her identity being found out without going full crack, what with how much work she has had to put in to not be found out. If you don't agree I understand but please no hate. Only constructive criticism please!
> 
> When it comes to how LB is spelled in the first chapter vs this chapter (LadyBug vs Ladybug), it's just how I feel like that character's would feel towards the title. Alya sees LadyBug as like a full superhero, so the name gets the full capital treatment to be super important, while Marinette just sees it as another side of her. If it wasn't for my personal feelings towards it, I probably would've written it as ladybug for her.
> 
> I hope that I'll have the next chapter out soon, but I won't give out empty promises. Especially since I'm waiting on a response from a fellow ML fic author. The next chapter heavily relays on their response. All I can say is that the next chapter will most likely be from Adrien/Chat Noir's POV

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! Please give a kudos and a comment if you can! Please give constructive criticism if need be! I wrote this at like 2am with almost no sleep lol
> 
> As for the texting bit you can pry the headcanon that with how well these to have to write and report all the time that they don't turn into cliche texters out of my cold dead hands
> 
> And yes both times Mari was looking away she was talking with Tikki. She just didn't show up due to the camera on the phone/laptop
> 
> Until next time <3


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